Russia Loses UN Human Rights Council Place, Saudi Arabia Re-Elected

Local Editor

For the first time since UNHRC's inception in 2006, Russia lost an election to the UN Human Rights Council after being narrowly beaten by Croatia in a vote. Saudi Arabia was successfully re-elected, despite criticism from human rights organizations.

The 47 places on the council are distributed on a regional basis, with staggered ballots seeing a third of the body re-elected each year. Russia had finished its three-year term and was running against Hungary and Croatia for the two available seats from Eastern Europe.

With Hungary far ahead, Croatia received the votes of 114 of the 193 member countries, and Russia was selected on 112 ballots.

Saudi Arabia sailed through the Asian ballot with 152 votes, and will represent the region on the UNHRC alongside China, Japan and Iraq for the next three years.

South Africa, Rwanda, Egypt and Tunisia were chosen from the African group, Cuba and Brazil from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the US and the UK will represent the Western bloc, which comprises Western Europe and North America.

Over the next term, which will last between 2017 and 2019, the 14 chosen members will be tasked with formulating the UN's official position on conflicts occurring around the world, as well as the domestic policies of member states.

The elections took place against a backdrop of criticism from non-governmental human rights organizations, who say that the body has been hijacked by oppressive regimes looking to deflect criticism and drive their own agendas.

Relatively, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International produced a joint statement earlier this year condemning Saudi Arabia for "an appalling record of violations" in Yemen, where it has conducted a bombing campaign against Ansarullah revolutionaries since 2015, which has resulted in the martyrdom of up to 4,000 civilians.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team